Commercial businesses, processing facilities, manufacturers, and homes often place floor mats at entrances and on aisle ways. The floor mats generally have a backing surface to bear against a floor surface and an opposing top surface for foot or wheeled traffic. The top surface may be molded or include a fabric or carpet for scraping debris from shoes and receiving and holding such dislodged debris. The floor mat may thus capture at least some of the dirt and debris that may otherwise be carried into a floor space and become dislodged there. The uncaptured dirt and debris that dislodges after being carried into a floor space increases cleaning maintenance requirements and may lead to slip and falls by persons using the floor space.
Grocery stores often have problems arising with floor surfaces and traffic of persons walking on the floor surface and moving wheeled carts across the floor surfaces. By way of example, grocery stores typically group particular like products in departments or areas for selection during purchasing. These groupings, or departments, include fresh produce of vegetables and fruits, meats, canned goods, dairy, breads, and the like. The grouping of products in departments not only make shopping more convenient but groups specialized equipment necessary for inventory storage and display of the goods in the respective departments. For example, the meat department includes refrigerated cases for display of meat. The produce department includes sprayers for misting vegetables and fruits with water spray. The dairy department includes typically open refrigerated cases for maintaining the product at lower temperatures while providing convenient access for shoppers to the products.
Some departments are susceptible to moisture on the floor. This includes the produce and meats department. In addition, other commercial facilities are similarly subject to moisture on the floor. Persons working in these grocery departments often spend time walking through the department to respond to customer requests, to replenish inventory, and to straighten display of product in the department.
Often these departments place commercial rubber-backed carpeted floor mats on the floors. As noted above, these commercial mats typically have flat or substantially planar backs or have small spaced-apart spikes that extend from the back of the mat. The mats have an opposing carpet face on which persons walk or roll shopping carts. The spikes bear against the floor. The floor mats provide a softer walking surface as well as reduce the potential for customers to walk on a wet floor surface. Indeed, an industry has developed around the periodic placing, retrieval, and cleaning of such carpeted floor mats in grocery stores and other commercial establishments.
Notwithstanding, there are drawbacks to the use of currently available floor mats. These floor mats typically are placed on firm surfaces. The floor mats are subject to foot and wheeled cart traffic, which is the purpose. Persons walk across the mats and roll shopping carts across the mats. The loading of the traffic tends to cause the floor mat to “walk” or move slightly as the traffic moves across the mat. The spikes projecting on the back surface provide support but also are provided as a structure to resist the mat from “creeping” or moving in response to the loading of the person walking or rolling a cart across the mat. Generally, a floor mat with a flat back does not move as much as one having the spikes. A greater surface areas provides increased friction to the floor to resist movement. The spikes on the other hand may flex under loading such as by a customer walking on the carpeted surface. The flex and return movement of the spikes tends to cause the floor mat to move. The mats with spikes generally work best on carpeted or textured floors. The movement or “walking” of the floor mat from any one incident generally is not significant, but multiple occurrences of walking across the mat by customers or multiple occurrences of carts rolling across the mat may causes significant movement from the original placement of the floor mat.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for floor mats with an surface structure that provides improved resistant to movement of the floor mat during use by foot or wheeled traffic. It is to such that the present invention is directed.